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Author
Topic: Goodbye Facebook (Read 7868 times)

I logged into Facebook today and decided I had enough. When I saw all the stupid comments following this shooting I realized I don't want to hear what my "friends" have to say anymore so I deleted the account. I wanted to quit earlier but thought things might improve after the election. Wrong! I left a brief message saying I had enough so I am sure some people will take offense. None of my real friends are on Facebook and the only messages I think I will miss are from George Takei. My partner will be thrilled I have quit as he has always hated Facebook.

I did the same and am nearing the end of their 14-day window. You miss Takei -- I miss Words with Friends with a school chum. I read an interesting article by Steven Finkelstein when I made my final decision. Like you, my friends aren't there and none of my family.

Facebook was never anything i got into. I guess because i never tried to figure it out, the whole thing seemed confusing to me, so i stayed off it even when everybody bombarded me daily to add a facebook page. My ex has a facebook page and its FULL of goofy pictures and shit 98 percent of folks care less about.

I guess i'm an old soul, but I don't get the Twitter thing either, I signed up on that for about a week and quickly learned that folks have way too much time on their hands.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Facebook quickly turned into a volley of gun control comments (both for and against), after yesterday's shooting in Connecticut. But it is frustrating and irritating to see just how snarky, smug and mean-spirited some people's comments were. It's also amazing how people post things like that on Facebook, that they would never express in a face-to-face conversation.

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"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." - Butch Hancock, Musician, The Flatlanders

I stay away from political and socially charged discussions on Facebook. They always result in one or more persons calling names and personally attacking one another. I am there because I have reconnected with several friends from the past and I do use it to keep up with my friends from other parts of the country...and for fun..many of my friends are comedians and that results in some interesting fun.

Some of my friends and family are there, however. And I see all the good sides to social networking. Something about Facebook reminds me of Hallmark cards for some reason. Its a for profit business like any other, but the product is all about good feelings and connectedness. The glitch is, all the while I was growing up, my Mom boycotted Hallmark. She's not intellectual or cynical (my dad was) rather she's creative and very eccentric, and she would say Hallmark was trite, or boring, or not interesting designs, and things like that. She didn't want her sentiments and messages so mass merchandised or prepackaged, I guess.

Facebook does some things well. Any communication media is going to limit and structure how and what you communicate. Facebook no exception. Its kind of a pity there can't be more competition for providers of Facebook-like social networking and they communicate with each other seamlessly. Do people now communicate cross platform with twitter and facebook and text messaging, for example?

« Last Edit: December 15, 2012, 09:37:48 AM by mecch »

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ďFrom each, according to his ability; to each, according to his needĒ 1875 K Marx

i just quietly delete any friends that get too overtly political over issues like this. If your posts don't contain a pic of a cute kitten you're gone. Course most of my friends are bleeding-hearts so I don't have much to worry about.

The problem isn't facebook, the problem is that you fine people have an absolutely horrible skill set with setting up your friends list. I simply don't have any Republicans on there, so I don't see any Chick-Fil-A-Huckabee nonsense in my newsfeed. My other rule is not having any family members on it.

The problem isn't facebook, the problem is that you fine people have an absolutely horrible skill set with setting up your friends list.

True. I have all kinds of people on my list: coworkers, distant relatives, in-laws, people from high school, ex-boyfriends, etc. Many of these people like to voice their political and religious opinions. I share nothing of substance on Facebook. When I look at my friends list none of them are truly friends in real life. The people I hang out with in real life don't have Facebook accounts. I have two weeks to recover my account and I am considering unfriending everyone except for the famous people and organizations that I enjoy following.

True. I have all kinds of people on my list: coworkers, distant relatives, in-laws, people from high school, ex-boyfriends, etc. Many of these people like to voice their political and religious opinions. I share nothing of substance on Facebook. When I look at my friends list none of them are truly friends in real life. The people I hang out with in real life don't have Facebook accounts. I have two weeks to recover my account and I am considering unfriending everyone except for the famous people and organizations that I enjoy following.

Should I assume that you know about the "hide from timeline" function? You don't have to un-friend someone (necessarily) but only activate that "hide" button. That way they don't know they've been un-friended or anything.

The problem isn't facebook, the problem is that you fine people have an absolutely horrible skill set with setting up your friends list. I simply don't have any Republicans on there, so I don't see any Chick-Fil-A-Huckabee nonsense in my newsfeed. My other rule is not having any family members on it.

Me, too. Zero family, and the only Huckabee type crap I see comes by way of my fellow bleeding hearts, so we just bitch about it together.

Most of the political things I post are about marriage equality, and I don't see that as political really. During the election, I posted things about taxes, etc. I would say 80% of my posts are fluff. But, I can only do so much fluff. But, I see how posting political views can cause problems.

Facebook did cause family problems, when my partner's sister-in-law posted a pro-Chick-fil-a pic. We were no longer friends with her, but she tagged her husband in it, who we are friends with. Well, actually my partner defriended his brother. She had to know by tagging her husband, we would see it. She could have shown him the pic privately. It was more hurtful that she allowed her friends to post derogatory remarks about gays, without putting a stop to it. When my partner commented how hurtful it was, her friends ganged up on him. After his brother nor she defended him, that's when I went off. That's when the blow up happened. Thanksgiving was cancelled.

Most of the political things I post are about marriage equality, and I don't see that as political really.

and your sister-in-law doesn't see her stuff as political either..... hence the problem with Facebook and every other social media outlet. FB "friends" don't agree on someone's statement -- combined with the internet's ability to make people say things they would never say in an actual gathering and BOOM!!

I have not had any conflicts over Facebook because I don't post anything too controversial. I did make some posts encouraging people to vote against the NC anti-gay marriage amendment, which some people didn't appreciate. I have also posted some gay-themed content that I am sure some of my high school acquaintances were like WTF.

I have never had a facebook though some people have urged me to do so. I am sure if I created one I would spend a long period of time on that site and get addicted to it. My best friend doesn't have one either. Other people I talk to on the phone or see in person. I've thought about creating an account, but then always reconsider.

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I've never killed anyone, but I frequently get satisfaction reading the obituary notices.-Clarence Darrow

The main reason I have a FB account is so I can see my daughter's photos. If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't have joined. I only go there once or so a week and I don't fully understand how it works, particularly since they changed to this new "timeline" thing. I was finally starting to get the hang of the old format when they started changing it - now I've just given up. I do admit I like seeing some of the photos friends of mine post, but I rarely post there myself. I don't understand how it works to the extent that I missed the birthday wishes people left for me last month.

When my daughter finally comes back home to The Rock to live, I'll probably get rid of FB. I won't need it anymore then because I'll be able to see her photos in person, which is far better.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I ran into a bit of a complication. I have been using Facebook to login for various website and would have to create new logins. It is not a big deal except for my Spotify account, which apparently requires a Facebook account. I use Spotify all the time. So I decided to reactivate and "hide" some people who post things that get on nerves-- let the culling begin! Two "friends" who are getting the ax including the ones who had these waiting for me:

I rarely post anything on facebook and I don't understand how it all works . My page has a bunch of crap , its one with my name , and then another whole bunch of other content if you hit the home button . I don't really care to understand ... I am rather ashamed of some of the post that show up on my account . I'm an extremely liberal guy living in an extremely conservative area and the content on my page is often offensive to me and requires more time to delete stuff than I care to spend on it . I have lived all over the country and have friends all over the world and FB is the best way to peek in to see whats up ... so its a necessary nuisance .

The only reason I'm still on FB is to keep in touch with relations scattered about the country. Although I often ask myself why, as some of these relative I haven't seen in years. Kip Drodry is fun to follow though.

What drives me nuts are the immediate comments when an event like Connecticut occurs. Pretty flowers, heart wrenching poems, and within a day all is forgotten. A feigned cut and paste emotional response allowing one to satisfy a societal obligation. Followed shortly after with a photograph of the amazing pork chops had for dinner.

Wow, that sounds cynical... the whole shooting thing leaves me cynical, wait a week or two and it'll be swept under the rug. Fiscal cliff and the BCS will replace it.

On the up side, try Google Plus. I leave the social part untouched and spend my time following people and topics that actually interest me.

I'm usually not this jaded... come Jan 2nd I'll snap out of it.

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Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly,Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.

I have a wide variety of people on my facebook. There are some including my family who are Dyed in the wool republicans but it's never really bothered me. My father was so anti-Obama that when the president won re-election I just laughing imagining my father's shit fit. Anyway just delete the offenders, if they ask why they're off your friends list let them know that you didn't appreciate the way they expressed their political views.

Facebook User Statistics Infographic Highlights:1. Facebook currently has 845 million active users. 2. Facebook accounts for 1 out of every 5 pageviews on the internet worldwide. 3. Facebook users share over 100 billion connections collectively. 4. Over 50% of the population in North American uses Facebook. 5. 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook daily. 6. There are 2.7 billion likes every single day on Facebook. 7. 57% of Facebook user are female (43% male). 8. The social media giant has 425 million mobile users. 9. The average Facebook user spends 20 minutes on the site per visit. 10. Mark Zuckerburg currently has a base salary of $500,000 but is worth over $17.5 billion. 11. Facebook nearly doubled its revenue in 2011 by making over $1 billion ($600 million in 2010).

My ex-partner, who is the same age I am, uses nothing. I don't even think he uses things like grindr, and yet he gets laid all of the time. He's not a luddite at all either as he's an IT consultant/professional.

what do you use? what was the compelling reason to switch?I've just had no compelling reason to leave FB, nor to leave my friends behind

I signed up with FB when it was what the majority of people did (a few years ago). I connected with all my old friends from high school and college. Posted pic's of vacations and all that..the usual.

Then I think as time went on the releavance of it started to fade. I posted less and less. My friends posted less and less. It got to the point where there were only a few "regulars" that would post and everyone else started to use it less and less.

Then I just started to feel a overexposed as I had friends, family, work associates on there. I removed everyone from work. Then I removed aquaintances. It got to the point where the only post that I found at all interesting was from George Takai (he's hillarious).

So I stopped using it and now I dont use any sort of social media. I dont use any phone apps (like grindr or anything like that) or any other social websites. Really the only posting that I do now is on here. A lot of it is just I am really busy at the moment too. Work has been in high gear so there is just only so much time in the day.

Since most of my friends stopped posting on FB and I stopped I kind of assumed that it was becoming more routine for people to stop losing FB. I am shocked by the stats GSO posted especially the one that 50% of people use it. That seems really really really high.

I've been using facebook since around 2004 when you had to have a university email address to belong. Back then you would literally go to a party and if you saw someone you enjoyed you would add them on facebook. Then everyone you and they knew would start adding people they had seen at said social event. In this way you were at least somehow connected to an entire campus of people with varying degrees of acquaintance.

Since they have expanded to allow everyone in I do find people older than I am who don't really get on the bandwagon or whose social circles don't jump in full force don't really do much with the social aspect of it. I now use it as a means to keep in touch with friends who no longer live in the same city or state that I do and in order to spread information (or just things I find funny). I think it's funny you guys are talking about why you don't use it. It's not a big time waster if you don't make it that way and it costs nothing to use. So rather than having these two polar reactions, "I must use facebook constantly or I cannot be on facebook at all!", Why not just not log on when you don't feel like it and log on when you do?

Seroconverted: Early 80sTested & confirmed what I already knew: early 90s

Current regimen: Atripla. Last regimen: Epzicom, Sustiva (since its inception with NO adverse side effects: no vivid dreams and NONE of the problems people who can't tolerate this drug may experience: color me lucky )Past regimensFun stuff (in the past): HAV/HBV, crypto, shingles, AIDS, PCP

I'm nearing the end of the two week delete waiting period since deactivation and request to delete. On a side note who would think there is a longer wait period for someone to delete a profile on a silly social media site than there is for purchasing a gun in most (all?) states?

I started a while ago taking co-workers and family off but in truth the site lost relevance to me a while ago. The facebook exclusive sign-in thingy that some sites request is a bit troublesome, but I find enough that I use accept openid or google which works for me.

Really, no AIDS jokes? My, the world surely has changed since I was a teenager.

You and I had two completely separate and disparate experiences where we grew up and what the culture was like. I was a teenager right before and after the advent of HAART. The only source I ever heard about HIV/AIDS from was the television. I remember Pedro Zamora from "The Real World" being open about his HIV status, and I also remember an MTV "True Life" dealing with someone who was young and having HIV although that was probably about age 19 or 20.

I don't know why you're so dense as to think that in rural deep south Mississippi people didn't talk openly about the gay lifestyle and AIDS. It was taboo and it's part of the reason the infection rates in Mississippi and Louisiana are astronomical. People didn't talk about it, now they have major education campaigns to try to stem the infection rates, but it's too little too late for people in my age bracket.